ANDREW LANG'S FAIRY BOOKS

Grimm

RAPUNZEL

ONCE upon a time there lived a man and his wife who were very unhappy because
they had no children. These good people had a little window at the back of their
house, which looked into the most lovely garden, full of all manner of beautiful
flowers and vegetables; but the garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no
one dared to enter it, for it belonged to a witch of great power, who was feared
by the whole world. One day the woman stood at the window overlooking the garden,
and saw there a bed full of the finest rampion: the leaves looked so fresh and
green that she longed to eat them. The desire grew day by day, and just because
she knew she couldn't possibly get any, she pined away and became quite pale
and wretched. Then her husband grew alarmed and said:

`What ails you, dear wife?'

`Oh,' she answered, `if I don't get some rampion to eat out of the garden behind
the house, I know I shall die.'

The man, who loved her dearly, thought to himself, `Come! rather than let your
wife die you shall fetch her some rampion, no matter the cost.' So at dusk he
climbed over the wall into the witch's garden, and, hastily gathering a handful
of rampion leaves, he returned with them to his wife. She made them into a salad,
which tasted so good that her longing for the forbidden food was greater than
ever. If she were to know any peace of mind, there was nothing for it but that
her husband should climb over the garden wall again, and fetch her some more.
So at dusk over he got, but when he reached the other side he drew back in terror,
for there, standing before him, was the old witch.

`How dare you,' she said, with a wrathful glance, `climb into my garden and
steal my rampion like a common thief? You shall suffer for your foolhardiness.'

`Oh!' he implored, `pardon my presumption; necessity alone drove me to the
deed. My wife saw your rampion from her window, and conceived such a desire
for it that she would certainly have died if her wish had not been gratified.'
Then the Witch's anger was a little appeased, and she said:

`If it's as you say, you may take as much rampion away with you as you like,
but on one condition only--that you give me the child your wife will shortly
bring into the world. All shall go well with it, and I will look after it like
a mother.'

The man in his terror agreed to everything she asked, and as soon as the child
was born the Witch appeared, and having given it the name of Rapunzel, which
is the same as rampion, she carried it off with her.

Rapunzel was the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years
old the Witch shut her up in a tower, in the middle of a great wood, and the
tower had neither stairs nor doors, only high up at the very top a small window.
When the old Witch wanted to get in she stood underneath and called out:

`Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your golden hair,'

for Rapunzel had wonderful long hair, and it was as fine as spun gold. Whenever
she heard the Witch's voice she unloosed her plaits, and let her hair fall down
out of the window about twenty yards below, and the old Witch climbed up by
it.

After they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day that a
Prince was riding through the wood and passed by the tower. As he drew near
it he heard someone singing so sweetly that he stood still spell-bound, and
listened. It was Rapunzel in her loneliness trying to while away the time by
letting her sweet voice ring out into the wood. The Prince longed to see the
owner of the voice, but he sought in vain for a door in the tower. He rode home,
but he was so haunted by the song he had heard that he returned every day to
the wood and listened. One day, when he was standing thus behind a tree, he
saw the old Witch approach and heard her call out:

`Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your golden hair.'

Then Rapunzel let down her plaits, and the Witch climbed up by them.

`So that's the staircase, is it?' said the Prince. `Then I too will climb it
and try my luck.'

So on the following day, at dusk, he went to the foot of the tower and cried:

`Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your golden hair,'

and as soon as she had let it down the Prince climbed up.

At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man came in, for she had never
seen one before; but the Prince spoke to her so kindly, and told her at once
that his heart had been so touched by her singing, that he felt he should know
no peace of mind till he had seen her. Very soon Rapunzel forgot her fear, and
when he asked her to marry him she consented at once. `For,' she thought, `he
is young and handsome, and I'll certainly be happier with him than with the
old Witch.' So she put her hand in his and said:

`Yes, I will gladly go with you, only how am I to get down out of the tower?
Every time you come to see me you must bring a skein of silk with you, and I
will make a ladder of them, and when it is finished I will climb down by it,
and you will take me away on your horse.'

They arranged that till the ladder was ready, he was to come to her every evening,
because the old woman was with her during the day. The old Witch, of course,
knew nothing of what was going on, till one day Rapunzel, not thinking of what
she was about, turned to the Witch and said:

`How is it, good mother, that you are so much harder to pull up than the young
Prince? He is always with me in a moment.'

`Oh! you wicked child,' cried the Witch. `What is this I hear? I thought I
had hidden you safely from the whole world, and in spite of it you have managed
to deceive me.'

In her wrath she seized Rapunzel's beautiful hair, wound it round and round
her left hand, and then grasping a pair of scissors in her right, snip snap,
off it came, and the beautiful plaits lay on the ground. And, worse than this,
she was so hard-hearted that she took Rapunzel to a lonely desert place, and
there left her to live in loneliness and misery.

But on the evening of the day in which she had driven poor Rapunzel away, the
Witch fastened the plaits on to a hook in the window, and when the Prince came
and called out:

`Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your golden hair,'

she let them down, and the Prince climbed up as usual, but instead of his beloved
Rapunzel he found the old Witch, who fixed her evil, glittering eyes on him,
and cried mockingly:

`Ah, ah! you thought to find your lady love, but the pretty bird has flown
and its song is dumb; the cat caught it, and will scratch out your eyes too.
Rapunzel is lost to you for ever--you will never see her more.'

The Prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he jumped right
down from the tower, and, though he escaped with his life, the thorns among
which he fell pierced his eyes out. Then he wandered, blind and miserable, through
the wood, eating nothing but roots and berries, and weeping and lamenting the
loss of his lovely bride. So he wandered about for some years, as wretched and
unhappy as he could well be, and at last he came to the desert place where Rapunzel
was living. Of a sudden he heard a voice which seemed strangely familiar to
him. He walked eagerly in the direction of the sound, and when he was quite
close, Rapunzel recognised him and fell on his neck and wept. But two of her
tears touched his eyes, and in a moment they became quite clear again, and he
saw as well as he had ever done. Then he led her to his kingdom, where they
were received and welcomed with great joy, and they lived happily ever after.